Bright baby quilt

Its not often I start making a quilt based on the backing fabric!

Still when you find cute fabric on sale (its summer here and this is flannel), 

that can spark an idea.  These fabrics were on sale also...so it turned out, I wasn't initially aware of that!

However when I thought about it, this quilt pattern (of which I just made up) worked well because of the variety of prints.

So guess I am going back to the shops to get some more fabric!  Its all for a good cause of course!

Red...yep I definitely need more some red in my mix and perhaps another orange, ah dang it I need at least another five prints! ;) 

Happy quilting Sue.

Lego Man quilt - flimsy

I am feeling a head and shoulders above the rest, ha, ha, ha!

My first effort at a hand wasn't great, so tried again.

Slowly coming together, pants are important!

At this point just getting everything squared up is a challenge.  Then I remembered there was a size limit!

So that required a little off the top, and adding to the sides.

Just got to sew the sides then we are done!

Happy quilting Sue.

Flimsy finish - Hookers Hat Patch

I faced my blocks in a different direction, but the instructions for this quilt came from Carol Hopkins book Civil War Legacies.  The pattern is called Hookers Hat Patch - named after the red patches General Hooker gave his troops to wear on their hats.

I cut lots of red triangles and made rows.

Stitched the rows together.

Admired the zig zag setting - which is something I have longed to do.

And bingo it was done!  Hmm not quite as easy as it sounds.

 I will be celebrating mitering the final border for a long time to come. 

I would attempt a mitred border again, but first rule, forget measuring, just use the whole strip of fabric and trim later.  I wasted good time unpicking borders because the strip wasn't long enough...I did this several times before I got my brain around the fact that you need lots of overhang to mitre a border!  I only stitched the actual mitre once...that was easy!

End result, three out of the four corners the stripes meet perfectly.  That distracts me from the points I cut off when setting the blocks.  And the fact I should have pressed open every seam on this quilt - because there are lots of lumps and bumps to deal with when I come to the quilting.  That said,  overall I am a happy quilter!

Happy quilting Sue.

Lego man quilt

I put my hand up to make a Lego man quilt.  I have borrowed these men from my boys to model for me!

The truth is they are modern men, but I wanted to make an old fashion Lego man, the type I grew up with.  So a simple happy face was in order. 

 DS1 helped me pick red for his body and blue for pants.  

So I am spending lots of time making flippy corners.  Plus using the trial and error method  - lots of imprecise cutting and plenty of unpicking going on here! 

Slowly my Lego man is growing.

Happy quilting Sue.

Shopping bounty

I brought lots of brights

 to make a boy coloured version of this quilt.

I still need to buy border fabric, but that is decision I like to leave until the top is together and one colour speaks louder to me then the others.  Hmm right, I am conservative, you can better your bottom dollar it will be blue!

I brought these fabrics.

To finish these blocks off into a quilt.

Well that's the plan!

Happy quilting Sue.

A new bag is born

A new bag is born.  Lisa and made one together, the pattern is free and called Sewing Date Traveller, designed by Cynthia Frenette and can be found HERE.

The interfacing we used was super stiff, great to hold the bag upright, but that made it tough when sewing together the outer and liner.  But you never know that until you make a pattern.  I was behind Lisa in the process, so when she suggested I make the pockets from normal pellon instead of the stiff interfacing I got the benefit of her experience.

However my internal centre pocket was made of the stiff stuff  so it would stand up and side pockets are pellon = floppy.  The real test was sewing the liner (with pockets attached to the outer bag.  It was tough on the machine.

And I thought it would be tough to hand stitch the binding down.  That's why it was pinned for a week and not touched!  The design is great, you can see in to find all your tools, just not an easy bag to make.

However it was worth it in the end and I am very pleased to have it finished and use it.  

Happy quilting Sue.